Poles yesterday began voting in a presidential election that had been scheduled for last month, but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a ballot taking place amid deep cultural and political divisions in the EU nation.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, a 48-year-old conservative backed by the nationalist ruling Law and Justice party, is running against 10 other candidates as he seeks a second five-year term.
Whether Duda wins or not will determine whether the ruling party keeps its near-monopoly on political power in Poland.
Photo: AFP
Most recent polls showed that no single candidate was likely to reach the 50 percent required to avoid a runoff. In that case, the two top vote-getters would face each other on July 12.
Polling stations remain open until 9pm, and exit polls are to be announced immediately afterward. The final official results are expected by Wednesday at the latest.
Poland has not been as badly hit by the pandemic as many countries in Western Europe, and most people were voting in person, though required to wear masks and observe other hygiene rules.
There was also a mail-in voting option, and thousands of voters in some southwestern regions with higher virus infection numbers were required to vote by mail.
As of yesterday, Poland had nearly 34,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among its 38 million people, with more than 1,400 deaths.
Duda’s campaign focused on defending traditional values in the mostly Catholic nation, while promising to raise living standards to Western European levels.
He took a position against same-sex marriage and adoption and denounced the LGBT rights movement as a dangerous “ideology.”
That kind of rhetoric — along with laws that have given his Law and Justice party much greater control over the justice system and the ability to harness public media to promote the government’s image — have raised concerns among some that Poland is following Hungary in eroding democratic norms established after communism collapsed three decades ago.
Duda’s strongest challenge comes from Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, also 48, who is backed by the centrist Civic Platform party.
On the campaign trail, Trzaskowski, has promised to keep Law and Justice’s popular social welfare spending programs while vowing to restore constitutional norms.
The other candidates include Szymon Holownia, a TV personality and journalist who had once studied to be a priest.
Holownia is unaffiliated with any party and has generated some enthusiasm among those tired of years of bickering between Law and Justice and Civic Platform, the country’s two main parties.
Also in the running are Robert Biedron, a left-wing politician who is Poland’s first openly gay presidential contender; Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamys, the head of an agrarian party; and Confederation party lawmaker Krzysztof Bosak.
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